Posts tagged Evgeni Malkin

It’s been a topsy-turvy season in Penguin-land to say the least. For starters, there’s a new coach and GM. Not to mention tons of personnel changes and the usual spate of injuries and illnesses to contend with. Even team captain and reigning Art Ross and Hart Trophy winner Sidney Crosby hasn’t been immune, enduring an uncharacteristically epi [...]

Amid the kerfuffle that has become our Pittsburgh Penguins, one player has stood out from the pack.
A year after suffering a potential career-ending stroke, Kris Letang has returned with a vengeance. The former Norris Trophy candidate and Second Team NHL All-Star has piled up nine goals and 39 points (in 44 games)—the third-best points total [...]

Watching Blake Comeau circumnavigate the Colorado Avalanche not once but twice before scoring the winning goal in overtime on Thursday night was the perfect ending to a near-perfect 60 minutes of hockey.
The Penguins fired off a season-high 48 shots. They outhit the Avs. For good measure, they blocked 13 shots. Or, as Dan Bylsma used to say [...]

Few teams endured more upheaval over the summer than the Pittsburgh Penguins. In a shakeup of seismic proportions, the black and gold replaced their long-time coach and GM, allowed several key performers to depart through free-agency, and traded away a 40-goal man.
It may have been worth it.
While the 2014-15 NHL season is only a month old, t [...]

I’ll never forget the day then-Penguins GM Craig Patrick chose defenseman Brooks Orpik with the 18th overall pick at the 2000 NHL Entry Draft.
Having been fed a steady diet of Robert Domes, Milan Krafts, and Konstantin Koltsovs the selection of Orpik signaled an abrupt change in the Pens’ drafting philosophy.
“In the past, we haven’t emphasiz [...]

In the wake of Ray Shero’s dismissal in May, Penguins owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle repeatedly stressed the need to add more grit and character to their hockey team.
On the first day of free agency new GM Jim Rutherford devised a novel approach for addressing that need. He let the Pens’ grit-and-character guys bolt.
In a mass depa [...]

It didn’t take long for new Penguins GM Jim Rutherford to swing his first high-impact trade. On June 27 he pulled off a classic two-fer, shipping All-Star right wing James Neal to Nashville for right wing Patric Hornqvist and left wing Nick Spaling.
The deal signals a significant shift in the Pens’ paradigm. “We wanted to change the mix of th [...]

Penguins GM Jim Rutherford announced today that he hired Mike Johnston as the team’s new coach, ending a prolonged three-week search that began when Dan Bylsma was fired on June 6 and included at least one much-publicized swing and miss.
Rutherford also announced that one-time Pens power forward Rick Tocchet joined the club as an assistant co [...]

Inspired by the presence of veteran Martin St. Louis, whose mother passed away the day before, and fueled by a two-goal effort from Derick Brassard, the New York Rangers clobbered the Penguins, 5-1, in Game 5 on Friday night to stave off elimination. Along the way the Rangers snapped an ugly 0-for-36 streak on the power-play with a pair of ma [...]

Paced by two-point efforts from superstars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, the Penguins outclassed the fading New York Rangers, 4-2, on Wednesday night to grab a commanding 3-1 lead in their second-round series. Despite losing defenseman Brooks Orpik late in the first period to an apparent knee injury, the black and gold limited the Rangers [...]